Beth Henley (born Elizabeth Becker Henley on May 8, 1952 in Jackson, Mississippi) is an American screenwriter, actress and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. She attended Southern Methodist University.
Her most famous play, Crimes of the Heart, was her first produced professionally. It opened at the Actors Theatre of Louisville and then moved to New York. Crimes of the Heart won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as the award for Best American Play of 1981 from the New York Drama Critics' Circle. The play also earned Henley a Tony Award nomination, and her screenplay for the film version of Crimes of the Heart was nominated for an Oscar as Best Adapted Screenplay.
Henley adapted her play, The Miss Firecracker Contest, into a 1989 film starring Holly Hunter entitled Miss Firecracker.
Henley continues to write plays and screenplays from her adopted home in California.
Her latest play, Ridiculous Fraud, played at the McCarter Theatre until June 11, 2006.
Received a BFA degree from Southern Methodist University 1974. Attended University of Illinois 1975-76. Performed with the Dallas Minority Repertory Theater as well as the New Salem Sate Park Theatre, (Illinois), in 1976. Wrote the script for the pilot episode of "Morgan's Daughters."
She attended SMU in the late 1960s-early 1970s with fellow actors
One of four daughters born to a lawyer (her father) an an actress (her mother).
Taught playwrighting at the University of Illinois (Urbana) and the Dallas Minority Repertory Theater.
While studying at an acting workshop in the Burbank, California, she wrote a play called "Crimes of Passion". The title was later changed to "Crimes of the Heart" and it won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Was nominated for Broadway's 1982 Tony Award as author of Best Play nominee "Crimes of the Heart."
Was member of the dramatic jury at the Sundance Film Festival in 1989.
